Saturday, June 30, 2012

A team of scientists, led by researcher Carles Lalueza-Fox from CSIC
(Spanish National Research Council), has recovered - for the first time
in history - part of the genome of two individuals living in the
Mesolithic Period, 7000 years ago. Remains have been found at La
Braña-Arintero site, located at Valdelugueros (León), Spain. The study
results, published in the Current Biology magazine, indicate that current Iberian populations don't come from these groups genetically.

The Mesolithic Period, framed between the Paleolithic and Neolithic
Periods, is characterized by the advent of agriculture, coming from the
Middle East. Therefore, the genome found is the oldest from Prehistory,
and exceeds Ötzi, the Iceman, in 1700 years.

Researchers have also recovered the complete mitochondrial DNA of one
of these individuals, through which they could determine that European
populations from Mesolithic Period were very uniform genetically. Carles
Lauleza-Fox, from the Institute of Evolutionary Biology (CSIC-UPF),
states: "These hunters-gatherers shared nomadic habits and had a common
origin. Despite their geographical distance, individuals from the
regions corresponding to the current England, Germany, Lithuania,
Poland, and Spain, shared the same mitochondrial lineage".

Historians and archaeologists have studied the ruins of
the Roman Forum for centuries, employing the tools on hand to add to the
knowledge of this center of Roman public life that hosted elections,
triumphal processions, speeches, trials, shops and gladiatorial
spectacles.

The latest research suggests these structures, which we know as white marble, may have been brightly painted.

Bernard Frischer, a classics and art history professor in the
University of Virginia's College of Arts & Sciences, led a team of
experts who used cutting-edge technology to find traces of yellow
pigment on a bas-relief of a menorah on the forum's Arch of Titus. In
its heyday, the yellow pigment would have appeared gold from a distance.

Frischer said the menorah has historical significance. "The menorah
on the relief is extremely important to Jews, since it shows the menorah
from the Second Temple in Jerusalem, which Titus captured and sacked in
A.D. 70."

Chernomorets. Archaeologists with the team of Associate
Professor Dr Ivan Hristov, Deputy Director of the National Museum of
History, discovered an underwater residential quarter during the
excavations at Cape Akin close to the coastal town of Chernomorets.
Bozhidar Dimitrov, Director of the National Museum of History, announced
the news exclusively for FOCUS News Agency.

“During the excavations under the Via Pontica government programme at
Cape Akin, one of the three capes of the town of Chernomorets, apart
from the massive fortified wall with two battle towers at the peninsula
itself, archaeologist Dr Ivan Hristov also discovered a continuation of
the fortified wall into the sea. The continuation of the wall surrounds a
big shoal Southwest of the cape. The fortified wall is preserved to
some big height and the team has seen the outlines of a big battle tower
of five meters height and three and a half meters width,” Bozhidar
Dimitrov explained.

In his words, the archaeologists have already ascertained that this is
the early Byzantine fortress Krimna, which was situated there. Due to
some circumstances, since the beginning of the WWI until a couple of
years ago the fortress was within the area of a military unit and it was
impossible for the archaeologists to study it.

A
reindeer engraved on the wall of a cave in South Wales has been found to
date from at least 14,505 years ago – making it the oldest known rock
art in the British Isles.

This photo
shows the main part of an engraving of a cervid found by Dr. George Nash
of the University of Bristol, UK in Cathole Cave on the Gower
Peninsula, South Wales. A new U-series date suggests it could be 14,505
years old -- making it the oldest known rock art in the British Isles
[Credit: Dr. George Nash/University of Bristol]

The
engraving was discovered in September 2010 by Dr George Nash from the
University of Bristol's Department of Archaeology and Anthropology while
he was exploring the rear section of Cathole Cave, a limestone cave on
the eastern side of an inland valley on the Gower Peninsula, South
Wales.

Found
to the rear of the cave on a small vertical limestone niche, the
engraved cervid – probably a stylised reindeer – is shown side-on and
measures approximately 15 x 11cm. It was carved using a sharp-pointed
tool, probably made of flint, by an artist using his or her right hand.
The animal's elongated torso has been infilled with irregular-spaced
vertical and diagonal lines, whilst the legs and stylised antlers
comprise simple lines.

Archaeological
research carried out at the Neolithic site of La Draga, near the lake
of Banyoles, has yielded the discovery of an item which is unique in the
western Mediterranean and Europe. The item is a bow which appeared in a
context dating from the period between 5400-5200 BCE, corresponding to
the earliest period of settlement. It is a unique item given that it is
the first bow to be found in tact at the site. According to its date, it
can be considered chronologically the most ancient bow of the Neolithic
period found in Europe. The study will permit the analysis of aspects
of the technology, survival strategies and social organisation of the
first farming communities which settled in the Iberian Peninsula. The
bow is 108 cm long and presents a plano-convex section. Worth mentioning
is the fact that it is made out of yew wood (Taxus baccata) as were the
majority of Neolithic bows in Europe.

The complete bow discovered during this year's campaign [Credit: Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona]

In
previous archaeological campaigns, fragments of two bows were found (in
2002 and 2005) also from the same time period, but since they are
fragmented it is impossible to analyse the characteristics of these
tools. The current discovery opens new perspectives in understanding how
these farming communities lived and organised themselves. These bows
could have served different purposes, such as hunting, although if one
takes into account that this activity was not all that common in the La
Draga area, it cannot be ruled out that the bows may have represented
elements of prestige or been related to defensive or confrontational
activities.

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

An examination of the massive hoard of Iron Age coins found on the island of Jersey. Photograph: Jersey Heritage/PA

The largest hoard of Iron Age Celtic coins found anywhere in
northern Europe has been discovered by two amateur metal detectorists
who have been searching in the same field in Jersey for 30 years.

Reg
Mead and Richard Miles found up to 50,000 silver and bronze coins,
which remain clumped inside a massive block of soil. They had been
hunting for buried treasure inspired by legends that a local farmer once
turned up silver coins while working on the land. Earlier this year,
they finally found 60 silver coins and one gold, dating from the 1st
century BC. Every coin, Mead said, gave them the same thrill. "We are
talking about searching for 40 to 50 hours to get these coins out, and
every one gives you the same buzz."

Anglo-Saxon skeletons have been surfacing for almost a century
in the fields of Oakington. Now a new project has laid bare the trials
and tragedies of a small 6th-century Fenland community. Duncan Sayer, Richard Mortimer and Faye Simpson bring flesh to the bones.

In 1926 four early Anglo-Saxon burials, one equipped with a spear,
knife and shield boss, were discovered in an Oakington village field, in
Cambridgeshire. Described as ‘[south] of the church’, the land had just
been bought by Alan Bloom for his nursery garden. His interest piqued,
Alan dug dozens more holes, only abandoning the hunt for further bodies
when he hit undisturbed subsoil. Yet there were more to find.
Construction of a children’s playground in the 1990s brought 26 burials
to light, excavated by Cambridgeshire’s Archaeological Field Unit, while
2006 and 2007 saw Oxford Archaeology East recover 17 more. In 2010 and
2011 students and researchers returned to the site, opening new trenches
on either side of the playground and revealing 27 further burials –
including a pregnant woman, a warrior and, most exceptional of all, a
large number of child burials from a period when they are notoriously
scarce.

With several seasons left to go, Oakington is fully established as a substantial 6th-century Anglo-Saxon cemetery.But
there is more to the site than that. Capitalising on the longer view
that a research and community project provides, test pits and whole
trenches have been excavated in gardens and open spaces throughout the
village. The tantalising results point to an early enclosed community – a
Middle Saxon Burh – on the edge of the Cambridgeshire Fen.

Prof. Nikolay Ovcharov poses with newly uncovered walls at the St.
Peter and St. Paul Monastery complex in Veliko Tarnovo. Photo by Darik

Bulgarian archaeologists have uncovered new finds from a monastery dating back to the 13th century, i.e. the height of the Second Bulgarian Empire.

The team of archaeologists Prof. Nikolay Ovcharov and Prof. Hitko Vachev, who have been exploring sites at Veliko Tarnovo, the capital of the Second Bulgarian Empire, have found a number of artifacts, and have uncovered the walls of a medieval church, which was part of the St. Peter and St. Paul Monastery complex in the Middle Ages. It is more precisely associated with the rule of Bulgarian Tsar Ivan Asen II (1218-1241 AD).

"The walls that we have uncovered date back to the first half of the
13th century. Part of the architectural remains have turned out to be
ruined by construction in the past 30 years. We have also found a second
wall dating back to the 14-15th century which is a testimony as to how
the monastery was transformed. In the western section of the
temple we even found evidence of a third renovation from the 18-19th
century," Prof. Ovcharov explained, as cited by Darik Radio.

Archaeologists
in Greece's second-largest city have uncovered a 70-meter (230-foot)
section of an ancient road built by the Romans that was the city's main
travel artery nearly 2,000 years ago.

Workers of
Metro's construction company are seen at the ancient ruins in the
northern Greek port city of Thessaloniki on Monday, June 25, 2012.
Archaeologists in Greece’s second largest city have uncovered a 70-meter
(230-foot) section of an ancient road built by the Romans that was
city’s main travel artery nearly 2,000 years ago. The marble-paved road
was unearthed during excavations for the city’s new subway system that
is due to be completed in four years, and will be raised to be put on
permanent display for passengers when the metro opens [Credit:
AP/Nikolas Giakoumidis]

The
marble-paved road was unearthed during excavations for Thessaloniki's
new subway system, which is due to be completed in four years. The road
in the northern port city will be raised to be put on permanent display
when the metro opens in 2016.

The
excavation site was shown to the public on Monday, when details of the
permanent display project were also announced. Several of the large
marble paving stones were etched with children's board games, while
others were marked by horse-drawn cart wheels. Also discovered at the site were remains of tools and lamps, as well as the bases of marble columns.

Pakistani officials say
they are doing their best to save one of the most important
archaeological sites in south Asia, Mohenjo Daro. But some experts fear
the Bronze Age site could be lost unless radical steps are taken.

It is awe-inspiring to walk through a home built 4,500 years ago.

Especially one still very much recognisable as a house today,
with front and back entrances, interconnecting rooms, neat fired brick
walls - even a basic toilet and sewage outlet.

Astonishingly, given its age, the home in question was also built on two storeys.

But it is even more impressive to walk outside into a real Bronze Age street, and see all of the other homes lining it.

Monday, June 25, 2012

Roman coins collected by a numismatist will be auctioned off on July 3.

Proceeds from the specialist sale will go to the British Museum.

The late Kenneth Edwin Day, from Thames Ditton, was a leading figure
in the Kingston Numismatic Society and keen Roman coin collector.

Auctioneer Morton and Eden will divide the coins between two sales and expected the collection to raise about £30,000.

The proceeds of both sales will be added to an acquisition fund set up
so the museum can buy coins of significant to Britain and increase the
accessibility of the national collection using new
digital technology.

Remote
sensing technologies are becoming increasingly important to how we do
archaeology -- and it's not hard to understand why. Being able to see what's
beneath the surface of the ground without needing to dig is an archaeologist's
dream!

Most
of the remote sensing methods that have been discussed in this blog have been
geophysical techniques, such as the detection of subtle variations in the
magnetic properties of the soil.

In
my June column in the Columbus Dispatch, I discuss a recent paper by
archaeologists Christopher Roos of Southern Methodist University and Kevin
Nolan of Ball State University,
which was published in the January 2012 issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science.

New technologies increasingly give archaeologists the ability to gaze into the ground without
having to dig.

These can be geophysical surveys that might only require passing various instruments over the
ground’s surface but also might involve inserting small probes into the soil, or geochemical
methods that require removing small soil samples to measure their chemical properties.

Archaeologists Christopher Roos of Southern Methodist University and Kevin Nolan of Ball State
University argued in the January 2012
Journal of Archaeological Science that such methods often are preferable to traditional
archaeological excavations because they are less expensive, take less time and do less damage to
archaeological sites, which increasingly are viewed as endangered resources.

Roos and Nolan examined phosphorus levels in the soil of the Reinhardt Site in Pickaway County,
a Late Prehistoric village that dates to around A.D. 1300. High phosphorus levels in soils tend to
be correlated with trash dumps — or middens — that contain large quantities of organic waste.

A new study of lake sediment cores from Sanak Island in the western
Gulf of Alaska suggests that deglaciation there from the last Ice Age
took place as much as 1,500 to 2,000 years earlier than previously
thought, opening the door for earlier coastal migration models for the
Americas.

The Sanak Island Biocomplexity Project, funded by the National
Science Foundation, also concluded that the maximum thickness of the ice
sheet in the Sanak Island region during the last glacial maximum was 70
meters – or about half that previously projected – suggesting that
deglaciation could have happened more rapidly than earlier models
predicted.

Results of the study were just published in the professional journal, Quaternary Science Reviews.

The study, led by Nicole Misarti of Oregon State University, is
important because it suggests that the possible coastal migration of
people from Asia into North America and South America – popularly known
as “First Americans” studies – could have begun as much as two millennia
earlier than the generally accepted date of ice retreat in this area,
which was 15,000 years before present.

In
two months' time, the repair works at the Roman fortress Sexaginta
Prista near the Danube city of Ruse in northeastern Bulgaria are to be
wrapped up, according to a media statement f the Ministry of Regional
Development and Public Works.

The Sexaginta Prista site near Ruse [Credit: dariknews.bg]

The
project envisaging the renovation and popularization of the ancient
Roman fortress is worth around BGN 1.3 M which is provided under the
Regional Development Operational Program, the beneficiary being the
Ministry of Culture.

The
project involves a major overhaul of the two remaining buildings on the
territory of the fortress and the construction of a well-lit ramp that
will facilitate access to the remains at Sexaginta Prista (""the port
town of the sixty ships").

From sprawling factory complexes to newly built suburban
streets - by way of some of the UK's top sporting venues and seaside
resorts. More than 10,000 images from one of the earliest collections of
aerial photography are being made freely available on the web.

The Aerofilms Collection is being conserved and digitised by
English Heritage and the Royal Commissions on the Ancient and Historical
Monuments for Scotland and Wales.

Many of the images are instantly recognisable - but the
public are also being asked for their help to identify some other
locations, and paint a picture of life in the UK between 1919 and 1953.
Take a look at some of the photographs with Katy Whitaker from English
Heritage.

Saturday, June 23, 2012

Change is afoot at the Museum of London, which today (22 June 2012) reopened its Roman gallery following the first major update to this section since it opened in 1994.

‘Our Londinium 2012’ draws parallels between life in Roman London and the city today. Funded by the Arts Council England, the redevelopment is part of the Cultural Olympiad Programme ‘Stories of the World’ and includes a wealth of new installations including audio-visual displays and interactive touchscreen maps.

Modern objects – mostly drawn from the London Archaeological Archive and Research Centre (see CA 267 for more on this record-breaking collection) – have been placed in two thirds of the gallery’s display cases beside Roman artefacts.

A bust of Hadrian recovered from the Thames foreshore and currently on loan from the British Museum is juxtaposed with ‘V for Vendetta’ masks worn during the recent anti-cuts protests to prompt discussion about power and authority and how these are challenged.

The famous circle may celebrate the end of Britain's forgotten east-west divide, long since replaced by the familiar one between north and south

Come together. Was it Britain's prehistoric equivalent of the UN building in New York? Photograph: Felix Clay

Sheffield academics are good at collaring national attention. Witness the anxious appeals by radio listeners in the 1930s for scientists in the city to halt an atomic experiment on the grounds that it might bring about the end of the world.

Not long before, a Sheffield University lecturer in electrical research, Dr T.F.Wall applied for a patent for a means of transmitting electrical energy without wires – according to journalists at the time:

an invention capable of destroying life, stopping airplanes in flight and bringing motor cars to a standstill.

More positively, he added, it could have beneficial applications in surgery and medicine. Not to mention, which he couldn't even though he was so ahead of his time, wifi and the internet which have brought you this.

What now? Sheffield has played a leading part in a ten year research project on Stonehenge whose discoveries and conclusions have been gradually released since 2002 and have now come together in a book. Don't for a minute think that the main conclusion can be proved beyond doubt or that the report will end the age-old mystery. But it is plausible and based on a heap of archaeological material.

After 10 years of archaeological investigations, researchers
have concluded that Stonehenge was built as a monument to unify the
peoples of Britain, after a long period of conflict and regional
difference between eastern and western Britain.

Stonehenge Riverside Project team

Its
stones are thought to have symbolized the ancestors of different groups
of earliest farming communities in Britain, with some stones coming
from southern England and others from west Wales.

The teams, from the universities of Sheffield, Manchester,
Southampton, Bournemouth and University College London, all working on
the Stonehenge Riverside Project (SRP), explored not just Stonehenge and
its landscape but also the wider social and economic context of the
monument’s main stages of construction around 3,000 BC and 2,500 BC.

“When Stonehenge was built”, said Professor Mike Parker Pearson of
the University of Sheffield, “there was a growing island-wide culture –
the same styles of houses, pottery and other material forms were used
from Orkney to the south coast. This was very different to the
regionalism of previous centuries. Stonehenge itself was a massive
undertaking, requiring the labour of thousands to move stones from as
far away as west Wales, shaping them and erecting them. Just the work
itself, requiring everyone literally to pull together, would have been
an act of unification.”

Stonehenge was the centre of ancient Britain, according to a study which
claims the monument symbolised the unification of eastern and western
communities.

Stonehenge was probably at the centre of the world for prehistoric Brits, archaeologists believe

Centuries of speculation have attributed countless functions to the famous
Wiltshire landmark, describing it variously as a prehistoric observatory, a
place of healing and a temple for ritual sacrifice.

But a new study by researchers from five British universities suggests
Stonehenge may in fact have been built as a sign of peace between people
from the east and west of the country after a period of conflict.

The stones, which come from different locations as far afield as southern
England and west Wales, may have been used to represent the ancestors of
some of Britain's earliest farming communities, researchers suggest.

Prof Mike Parker Pearson, of Sheffield University, said during Stonehenge's
main period of construction from 3,000 to 2,500 BC there was a "growing
island-wide culture" developin in Britain.

A new study of lake sediment cores from Sanak Island in the western Gulf of Alaska suggests that deglaciation there from the last Ice Age took place as much as 1,500 to 2,000 years earlier than previously thought, opening the door for earlier coastal migration models for the Americas.

The Sanak Island Biocomplexity Project, funded by the National Science Foundation, also concluded that the maximum thickness of the ice sheet in the Sanak Island region during the last glacial maximum was 70 meters – or about half that previously projected – suggesting that deglaciation could have happened more rapidly than earlier models predicted.

Results of the study were just published in the professional journal, Quaternary Science Reviews.

The study, led by Nicole Misarti of Oregon State University, is important because it suggests that the possible coastal migration of people from Asia into North America and South America – popularly known as “First Americans” studies – could have begun as much as two millennia earlier than the generally accepted date of ice retreat in this area, which was 15,000 years before present.

Members of the public are invited to visit an archaeological dig in
the grounds of the Heritage Council headquarters in Kilkenny from June
27-29.

Archaeological investigations in 2011
in the garden of the former Bishop’s Palace, now the Heritage Council
offices, found an early medieval comb makers workshop. The current dig
in 2012, involving 20 students from NUI Maynooth, aims to find more
information on the craft working and daily life in this part of
9th-century to 11th-century Kilkenny.

Visitors will learn how
Kilkenny has developed as a city and will see how archaeologists dig,
recognise and record their discoveries. Artefacts will also be on
display. The archaeologist’s ‘site hut’ in the 18th-century Bishop’s
Robing Room will be open to the public, and tea will be served in the
site hut.

50 years after the start of archaeological
explorations into the ancient burial tombs at Knowth in the Boyne
Valley, researchers at the site have confirmed that people will get to
experience the site like never before via virtual tours.

The Irish Examiner
reports on the rich history of the discoveries at Knowth in Co Meath
and how they will be brought that much closer to the public in the near
future.

The OPW hopes that the two
burial chambers at Knowth, which are the longest in Ireland, will be
accessible to the public virtually using high quality scans assembled by
a UCD team. The chambers are otherwise inaccessible to the public.

Knowth
is famous for its megalithic art, and the burial tombs at the site
housed some 300 pieces. The art pieces that have been discovered date as
far back as 3000 B.C.

Friday, June 22, 2012

A 3,300-year-old
treasure trove of gold found in northern Germany has stumped German
archeologists. One theory suggests that traders transported it thousands
of miles from a mine in Central Asia, but other experts are skeptical.

Archeologists in Germany have an unlikely new hero: former Chancellor
Gerhard Schröder. They have nothing but praise for the cigar-smoking
veteran Social Democratic politician.

Why? Because it was Schröder who, together with Russian leader Vladimir
Putin, pushed through a plan to pump Russian natural gas to Western
Europe. For that purpose, an embankment 440 kilometers (275 miles) long
and up to 30 meters (100 feet) wide had to be created from Lubmin, a
coastal resort town in northeastern Germany, to Rehden in Lower Saxony
near the northwestern city of Bremen.

The result has been a veritable cornucopia of ancient discoveries. The
most beautiful find was made in the Gessel district of Lower Saxony,
where 117 pieces of gold were found stacked tightly together in a rotten
linen cloth. The hidden treasure is about 3,300 years old.

Cave
paintings in Spain need to be analyzed further before the works can be
confirmed as the oldest known examples in the world, an archaeologist
said, casting doubt over a paper published in the journal Science.

The Panel of Hands at El Castillo Cave in Spain. Researchers have now
dated one of these hand stencils back to 37,300 years ago [Credit:
Pedro Saura]

A
team led by Alistair Pike of the University of Bristol in England said
in the paper that paintings at El Castillo cave date back at least
40,800 years. That would make them about 4,000 years older than those at
the Chauvet cave in France, meaning the Spanish works could be the only
cave art ever found to have been painted by Neanderthals, according to
Pike.

The
findings at El Castillo need further confirmation, Jean Clottes, who led
the research team that appraised the Chauvet works in 1998, said in a
telephone interview. Pike’s team used a method based on the radioactive
decay of uranium to analyze calcium carbonate crusts formed on top of
the paintings. This contrasts with radiocarbon dating employed at
Chauvet. The two methods have arrived at conflicting dates in the past,
according to Clottes.

Bulgarian archaeologists have discovered a treasure of bronze coins during excavations in the Black Sea resort town of Sozopol.

A treasure of 4th century BC ancient Greek bronze coins was found in a jar in Bulgaria's Sozopol [Credit: frognews]

The
treasure was found hidden in a small jar, and consists of 225 Ancient
Greek bronze coins, explained the leader of the archaeological team,
Prof. Krastina Panayotova, as cited by the Focus news agency.

The
coins are well-preserved, and were minted in Sozopol in the 4th century;
they were found during excavations of a necropolis in the Budzhaka area
close to the Black Sea town, she explained.

"They
were not found in a grave, they are not part of a funeral, this is a
treasure, a "classical" case of buried treasure. We have never found a
buried treasure before. I have been dealing with Apollonia (Sozopol's
Ancient Greek name – editor's note) for 25 years, and have never seen
anything like this. It is very rare to come across such a find in a
necropolis," Prof. Panayotova explained.

Thursday, June 21, 2012

The Colchester Roman Circus, the only archaeologically known Roman Circus in Britain is getting an Interpretation Centre. The Colchester Archaeological Trust is now in possession of the site which had been slated for development. The new HQ for the Trust site is the former Army Education Centre building at the Colchester Garrison.

The site was excavated in advance of development and according to the Gazette online:
“The eight starting gates of Britain’s only chariot circus were found
under the gardens of the Sergeants’ Mess, off Circular Road North, in
Colchester.

About Me

I am a freelance archaeologist and Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland specializing in the medieval period. I have worked as a field archaeologist for the Department of Environment (Northern Ireland) and the Museum of London. I have been involved in continuing education for many years and have taught for the University of Oxford Department for Continuing Education (OUDCE) and the Universities of London, Essex, Ulster, and the London College of the University of Notre Dame, and I was the Archaeological Consultant for Southwark Cathedral. I am the author of and tutor for an OUDCE online course on the Vikings, and the Programme Director and Academic Director for the Oxford Experience Summer School.